Forum Discussion
Winre.WIM file went missing - WHY?
I regularly do "create a restore point" and noted that the WinRETools row is "Missing". It says "WinRETools (Missing)".
As I do NOT play around with any system files on my PC, how has this item become corrupted.
And no, I do not have the Winre.wim file in the System Recovery directory.
3 Replies
“WinRETools (Missing)” usually means Windows cannot find or is no longer registered with the Windows Recovery Environment image. It doesn’t necessarily mean you corrupted it manually. A failed update, partition change, cloning, or cleanup program can also cause this.
Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:
reagentc /info
Check the Windows RE status and Windows RE location. If the location is blank or points to a missing partition, WinRE is not currently configured.
If the file is missing, don’t download a random winre.wim from the internet. Use matching official Windows installation media or another PC with the same Windows version to restore the recovery image, then register it with reagentc. If you’re not comfortable working with recovery partitions, an in-place repair installation from official media is safer.
You can still create restore points without WinRE, but options such as Startup Repair, Reset this PC, and Advanced Recovery may not work. Back up important files before attempting to rebuild the recovery environment, and don’t delete the recovery partition just because it is shown as missing.
You said "another PC with the same Windows version". I do have another PC with Windows 11, but does Windows 11 on both PCs have to be updated to the exact same point?
I've got:
so I have an Enabled status, and a long location (which I can't find on my C drive).
